Help for Investors, Advisors, and Partners

A Three-Step Process for Investors, Advisors, and Partners

Step 1: Investor/Advisor Profile

Fill out your Investor/Advisor Profile, so we can learn about your investment and advisory skills and interests. This helps us recommend the best path forward, helps your find other investors with complementary interests and experience.

The Investor/Advisor Profile normally takes about 10 minutes to complete. As your investing experience grows or your investment interests change, it's a good idea to periodically update your Investor/Advisor Profile.

We will contact you to talk with you about your interests before granting you full access to the investor features of this web site. Until then, you will have limited access to the services listed below. We strive to contact investors quickly (usually within 24 hours), and with discreet professionalism.

For investors, the Investor/Advisor Profile includes an optional short skills assessment that will help you decide how to direct your activities. Based on your investing experience, goals and expectations, the Investor/Advisor Profile will recommend one of three broad options: join a group, start a group, and "fly solo".

Step 2: Groups

Groups provide investors with the ability to filter and review deals and collaborate with other investors. Groups form around different areas of interest, whether topical, industry-specific or geographical. This is a unique opportunity to network with other investors to gain confidence, spread risk and collaborate in a trusted environment.

Join a Group

Group membership is managed by the group manager. Each groups manager decides whether the group is moderated (anyone may ask to join) or is invitation-only. You can ask to join moderated groups by clicking on the "ask to join" link on the Investor Groups page, as seen in the image, below. Once you have completed your Investor/Advisor Profile, this link will be available on your home page.

Invitation-only groups are, well, just that. You can't ask to join these; however, you may be invited to join such a group. In this case, the group manager will add you to the group; no action is required on your part.

Note that the Open Deal Flow is itself a group. once you've completed your Investor/Advisor Profile and have been contacted by the Business Catapult, you will automatically be added to the Open Deal Flow group.

Start a Group

Investors can start a group in order to collaborate with fellow investors. Groups might address a particular industry, geography or risk profile.

Investor groups are not only on-line workspaces to which you can invite other investors, but they also allow you to create a keyword list describing the deals you'd like to see. These keywords act as a set of filters; only deals that match a certain percentage of the keywords on your group will appear in your group. The ability to start your own group is provided to those who hold the Investor Group Subscription. Click here for more information on the Investor Group Subscription.

Step 3: Review Investment Summaries

With your groups and filters setup, you will now see the deals that match your keyword list. When you find a deal that looks interesting, contact the entrepreneur via the contact information in the Investment Summary and engage her (or him) in a discussion about a potential investment.

Important: it is critical to understand that you need to do your own investment diligence. We are help you find deals that fit your criteria, but are not in any way recommending any particular investment.